Pumpkin Spice Pie!

Alright, that job I was so excited to have is now gone. Quit, in fact. It just wasn't for me and didn't allow me to do the little things in life. Like cook. Or eat. Or sleep. However, as many of you have been kind enough to point out, I promised you pie! And to make up for my extreme tardiness, I will bring you two pies starting with the original. 

Last year for the holidays, my mom made the triple-layer pumpkin spice pie recipe that came with the seasonal pumpkin pie Jell-O pudding mixes. I instantly fell in love. It was light, but rich, creamy, and just a perfect slice of heaven. She sent me home with two boxes of the pudding mix too. For some reason, I suddenly started craving this "seasonal" pie as the temperatures here are easily reaching the 90s. Go figure.

You can find the original recipe online, but I've modified it here to my taste and energy level. I like adding a little pumpkin pie filling and nixing the last layer of pure cool whip. Granted, cool whip is the only whipped-cream product I'll eat with any regularity, but a whole layer of it is just too much for me. My take on it only uses two bowls as well, so it's an easy clean-up, no-bake pie of awesome. The only problem is getting your hands on the pudding flavor. Though I bet using similar flavored puddings with added pumpkin pie spice might make an interesting pie.

I ah... don't have any pictures. I ate about half of it the day it was made, then let the rest of it mold when I went back to work because of that non-eating issue. So sorry.

Zylo's Lazy Pumpkin Spice Pie

2 boxes pumpkin pie spice flavored Jell-O pudding
2 cups cold milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tub whipped topping (like Cool Whip)
1/2 can of pumpkin or sweet potato pie filling, or canned yams
1 graham cracker crust

Mix the first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add cool whip and blend.

In a separate bowl, dump in the pie filling. If using yams, drain the liquid and smush with a fork first. Add half of the pudding mix to it and stir.

Layer the mix with the pie filling on the bottom of the pie crust. Top with the rest of the mix.

Cover and refrigerate for several hours. Overnight works best.

Gorge on fluffy pumpkin joy.

Giveaway Winner and Chai

The job has taken a bit more of my time than I expected, but that's okay. I get paid for it. So in the spirit of paychecks, we have a winner! Suburban Prep, be expecting an e-mail from me today. How's 50% chance for good odds, huh?

Anyways, I was up in the early morning and played around. I finally bought a box of concentrated Oregon Chai and it's pretty tasty. Just a little sweet for my taste, but I got to drink it out of one of my new favorite cups.

Also, can we take a second to fully appreciate a take-out van with a menu holder on the side of the CAR!

That is all.

I'll be back soon with a pie.

Shrimp and Goat Cheese Quesadilla with Guacamole

I have been fiending over guacamole for the last two weeks, so when I found a paper recipe that combined guacamole and goat cheese, I was set. I had about half a pound of frozen shrimp to use up, plus tomatoes and goat cheese left from the tart recipe. However, the recipe said all the below ingredients made one large quesadilla. The point was to have one huge quesadilla with a tortilla on top and bottom. If you're uncoordinated, or me, you might want to do two smaller halves because mine broke apart like crazy. I'm fine with messy food, but next time for sure.

Since I decided to forgo store-bought guacamole and make my own, I knew I'd spend more time making myself sick on avocados than I would worrying about the actual meal. For two people, this makes a light meal that perfect in summer with just chips and (amazing) guac for a side. Plus, spreading the 8 oz goat cheese between two quesadillas reduces the fat and cost without sacrificing taste. These might also be good with a light sprinkle of shredded lettuce or spinach, or even a sweet dose of jicama. Experiment and don't worry about it.

Overall: So so tasty. Really. I was surprised by how good these simple quesadilla were, but I guess I shouldn't be at this point. Don't miss out - this is the perfect summer meal.

(Also don't forget about the giveaway!)

Shrimp and Goat Cheese Quesadilla with Guacamole

2 T olive oil
1 lb shelled, raw shrimp
1 lg ripe tomato
6 sprigs cilantro
2 flour tortillas
8 oz goat cheese
1 sliced jalapeno pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 container guacamole

1. Put oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Cut each shrimp crosswise into three pieces (or if you're lazy, just chop into smaller pieces). Add to skillet, raise heat to high and cook for 2 minutes, stirring once.

2. Deseed and dice tomato, and chop cilantro. Remove shrimp from skillet.

3. Lower heat to medium and place one tortilla in skillet. Spread the shrimp evenly over it, crumble goat cheese on top, then spread on tomato and cilantro. Add chopped jalapeno, salt, and pepper. Top with second tortilla and cook for 3 minutes.

4. Flip quesadilla and cook for 4 more minutes. Remove, cut into wedges, and serve with guacamole.

Free Giveaway!

Giveaway Alert!

If you follow them both, you'll know that I'm doing a giveaway on my craft blog in honor of GETTING A JOB! It's not a great one, but it pays bills. It will also pay shipping on a box full of goodies for a lucky reader. I've decided to do my first foodie giveaway!

Now, I didn't know there was going to be a theme until I started collecting things for the boxes. It started out with a Paula Deen cookbook. Then I found a Paula Deen line of recipe cards and cupcake liners to go with it. Round it out with some candy, a box of tea, fun pasta, and glittery blue icing and you've got a box full o'goodies.

To enter: leave a comment below and tell me how you found my food blog and recommend me another great one. For an extra entry, link back to this giveaway page on your own blog and let me know about it.

Other Info: The deadline is June 17th, which roughly coincides with my first payday. Every entry will be given a number and the winner will be chosen using a random number generator. As a testament to how prosperous I'm feeling, I'll also ship internationally so there are no excuses. Awesome, huh?

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

Look at me! I'm cooking! With the heat coming on strong down here in the South, I'm craving lots of vegetables and whole foods. Well, that and stuff I can just throw together.

While unpacking the kitchen, I noticed that I had bags of clipped recipes all over the place. Remember way back when I had the weekly paper recipe challenge? Me neither. It was so long ago. Regardless, I've got to start using these damn things because I had a big ass pile before and I never stopped adding to it. I've rounded up a pile to start cracking and here's the first attempt.

This tart was a simple slice and bake kind of dinner. Very little prep, few ingredients, and hardy any kitchen time. The recipe calls for three large tomatoes, but I only used two due to mine being quite formidable. If you check out the nutrition info at the bottom, you might want to take note of the fat content. 27 grams of fat per serving. Yeah. I wouldn't blame you if you used fat-free mayo and reduced fat goat cheese.

Now, when I first took this out of the oven, I was so hungry I ate about half the exposed crust while waiting for it to cool. Then I cut into it. Something was wrong. I was afraid to burn the sides of the crust, so I took it out on time even though the top wasn't bubbly. Because of that, it was way to juicy. Still, I had a piece anyways. Hey! I was hungry.

My warm tomato pudding tasted pretty good, but I put the pie back in to cook. Next time, I'll let the tomato slices sit on paper towels for a while to cut down on the juice. Or this would be a perfect recipe to use them right before they're ripe enough. Also, maybe it was because it just didn't work, but I would cut way back on the mayo. Even better, toss goat cheese crumbles with salt, pepper, and basil then throw on top without any mayo.

Overall: Tasty but too much mayo and soggy. Better luck next time.

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 30 min

1 refrigerated pie crust

3 lg (2 lbs) tomatoes, sliced

1 T flour

1/2 c mayo

3 oz goat cheese, crumbled

1/4 c chopped basil

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Heat oven to 575 F. Fit pie crust into tart pan (or be lazy like me and buy it already in a pie pan). Pierce the bottom with a fork and bake for 5 mins.

2. Layer tomatoes in crust. Sprinkle the tomatoes and stove (you know, for luck) lightly with flour.

3. Mix mayo, cheese, basil, salt, and pepper and spread over tomatoes. Bake until bubbling, 25 mins. Serve warm or at room temp.

Makes 6 servings

Per serving:

Calories: 364

Fat: 27 g

Protein: 5 g
Carb: 25 g

Make Me Dessert

Now, if you count making pasta with store-bought sauce and assembling spinach salads cooking (which I totally do right now), you have the first meal in my new place! I know you're all excited for me.
However, if you're looking for something a bit more delicous than Ragu Alfredo Sauce, check out these.

TPW_8738

Pioneer Woman's to die for Salted Caramel Brownies. Tell me you're not drooling right now.

Smitten Kitchen Strawberry Brown Butter Bettys. Deb cooks dangerously, completely refaceting a recipe to work for her. And you.

Or for something a little different, head on over to What We Eat for the recipe to Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme.

Happy dessert!

Starting from Scratch

Here it is. This is the picture I took of the kitchen when I was still apartment hunting. Notice the small but efficient work area and the high ceilings.

For something that's roughly 8'x8' (64ish square ft), it's jammed with convenience. Refrigerator with icemaker (that doesn't work right now), dishwasher, double barrel sink with garbage disposal and sink sprayer (also doesn't work now), stove, lots of upper cabinets, and places to stow knick-knacks overhead. Wow, huh?

Okay, not all of it works now (I'm looking at you sprayer and ice maker), but it's still doable. Plus, I could use more cabinet space because, yes, I do have that much stuff. My oven is on the small side or at least much smaller than I'm used to, but servicable.

And aside from the general blah aparment colors, there's really nothing to whine too much about.

Since there's not enough room in the kitchen and no built-in pantry, I'm back to using ye-olde stand-up pantry.

Which is fine. If nothing else it will encourage me to use what I have and only buy what I'll use. My refrigerator is filling up slowly but nicely.

Of course, recently the only things I've cooked so far are Lipton Noodle Soup mixes, frozen pizza, and reheated onion rings. But not to worry! I'm excited about settling in here and hope to have lots of new things going on soon. Until then, eat better than I am.

New Kitchen!

I'm officially moved and trying to unpack as well and as fast as I can. I can't find that magic little device that transfers pictures from my camera to my computer, but that's okay because these pictures are much better. Currently, I'm dreaming of a white, bright, organized kitchen. Let's make that happen, shall we?

1. My kitchen corner, 2. small kitchen organization, 3. everyday kitchen, 4. kitchen